Roster Shuffle

Some fairly significant changes today, most prominently in net.

With the parent Ranger club in the midst of quite a struggle lately, the organization shuffled up its goaltending, waiving Steve Valiquette and assigning him to the Pack and summoning Chad Johnson to the NHL.

Another move saw Ilkka Heikkinen getting his first call to the big time, with Wade Redden still injured and Heikkinen deserving of a chance to show what he can do at the top level, after a strong first quarter of the season with the Wolf Pack.

Valiquette has been a good soldier for the Rangers the past two-plus years, getting minimal playing time behind Henrik Lundqvist and contributing strongly to the fabric of the team, with his infectious sense of humor and winning personality. He has had some pretty good success on the ice too, getting two of his five wins in the ’07-08 season by shutout and finishing with an excellent 2.19 goals-against average that year, and going 5-5-2 with a shutout in 15 appearances last season.

He started 2009-10 with a shutout, blanking Anaheim October 11 at Madison Square Garden, and won two of his first three decisions, but had allowed 12 goals on 66 shots in his last three appearances, including eight on 33 shots in Saturday’s 8-3 loss at Pittsburgh.

It sounds like the Ranger staff has decided that Valiquette needs some more steady work to find a groove, hence the assignment to the AHL. Being a veteran on a one-way NHL salary, though, Valiquette would have to clear re-entry waivers to be called back up, and if he were claimed off of re-entry waivers, the Rangers would still be responsible for half of his salary, which would count against New York’s cap. Being that the parent club is already strapped for cap room, one wonders if they would take that chance.

When last seen in Hartford, though, Valiquette was among the top backstops in the AHL, and he and Jason LaBarbera formed one of the top tandems in the league’s recent history during the lockout season of 2004-05, when Valiquette led the league in goals-against average and he and LaBarbera shared the Harry “Hap” Holmes Award for lowest team goals-against average in the AHL. For however long he is here, he not only gives the Pack an experienced hand between the pipes but also a battle-tested leader with a ton of locker-room charisma about him.

As for Johnson, he has been awfully sharp lately in the Wolf Pack net, 8-3-1 in his last 12 outings with a 1.48 GAA and a 94.8% save percentage, and has played with a smooth confidence during that time that is well beyond his experience. I don’t know if I would have said he is ready for the NHL quite yet, but he certainly has the look of a guy who has a chance to be a solid goaltender at that level. It will be interesting to see if he gets a chance to get in there for more ice time than Valiquette was getting, or if he will be expected to learn by watching and practicing.